Slither
by redsandman99
Summary: The discovery of a crashed meteroite leads to an invasion nobody in the WWE is ready for.
1. Chapter 1

**Sooooo ladies and gentlemen...this little kernal has been in my head for awhile now. It's based on the movie of the same name but I will be giving it a bit of a demented twist (because you know, that's always fun) :)))**

...

Phil pulled into the arena parking lot while bobbing his head along to the song that was on the radio. Tonight was the last house show on the loop and then it was off back home for a few days. What exactly he planned to do on those days off was a little beyond him yet. Colt wanted to go see a movie though Phil wasn't completely down with that idea. The last time he had gone to the movie theater he had been bombarded by fans and it had just annoyed the crap out of him. There were times and places where he didn't mind giving autographs but if he spent the ridiculous amount of money it took to even go to a movie theater these days, he damn well wanted to be left alone so he could watch it in peace. Colt of course, thought the attention he attracted was one big game and as soon as anyone recognized him he went out of his way to put more attention on him. If Phil didn't love him he'd strangle the shit out of him for it.

"Phil! Phil!"

He was barely out of his car when those voices called out to him. He turned around and saw that it was Kelly and Eve calling out for him. "Girls!" He slammed his car door shut and extended his arms. "Come to me women."

They laughed and hugged him tight. "Phil?" Kelly said, her voice way more perky and cute than usual. That meant she wanted something.

"That's my name. Don't wear it out."

She giggled and Eve poked his chest lightly. "Will you help us carry our stuff in?"

He rolled his eyes. Of course that's what they wanted. They were always trying to get him to do stuff for them and he more often than not gave in. Unless he really really did not like them he did make attempts to look out for and help with the girls. He had seen more than one of his colleagues over the years act like assholes to the girls and even if he himself was one at times, he tried not to turn the attitude towards them. "Is that all you see me as? Your luggage boy?"

"Of course not," Eve assured him. "You're also our sober driver, our therapist-"

"And our Philly-"

"Noooooo." Phil quickly put his hand over Kelly's mouth to silence her. "Don't even finish that. I will carry your bags for the rest of my life if you don't finish that sentence."

Kelly moved her face away from his hand and smiled at him. "Thank you." She and Eve both kissed his cheek and he just rolled his eyes and followed them to their car. He slung their bags over his shoulder and then went back to his car to get his. He followed them to the arena, spotting Beth and Natalya standing not too far away talking to each other. He was hoping they wouldn't see him but of course they did. The looks on their faces told him that he was going to get so much shit from them but he tried to ignore them. He got Kelly and Eve's bags into the diva's locker room and then started to head to the men's when Beth stepped right in his path.

"Oh Phil, can't you help me with my bags?" she asked, mocking Kelly's voice and batting her eyelashes as cute as she possibly could. "I'm just a helpless little lady I couldn't possibly carry them myself."

A pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around his waist from behind and he didn't have to look to know it was Nattie. "Oh help me too kind sir." She was just having way too much fun with this already. "I just love it when big strong manly men like you help us poor damsels."

"Okay okay," he said as he shook his head. "You can stop that any time now."

"Ohhhh no we can't." Nattie gave him one last squeeze before stepping up beside Beth. "You're never going to hear the end of this."

"Why not? Why don't you tease them? They're the ones who couldn't carry their own bags into the arena."

"Yeah but come on. You really think they'll take it that well? They might go running to Daddy Vince and Mommy Laurinaitis and then we'll be in allll kinds of trouble." Beth shook her head in disgust and put her hand on his shoulder. "So while we settle for kicking their asses in the ring-"

"When you're not forced to sell Kell's god awful punches," Phil interrupted cheekily.

Beth scowled and Natalya punched his chest hard enough to make him yelp. "Don't even speak of that crap. That was just humiliating."

"I felt like I was getting hit by a toddler throwing a temper tantrum," Beth muttered.

"Well…her punches were better than Maria's sissy slaps towards Michelle that one time?" That was about the only thing he could think of that would possibly make her feel better.

"He's got a point," Nattie admitted.

"Him? Have a point? You're joking right?"

Phil froze for a second before groaning. "Noooo no no no." He slowly turned around, hoping that he was mistaken about who's voice that was. Unfortunately though, he wasn't. Cooper fucking Lawson was coming approaching them, smirking at him while keeping a tight grip on Connor to make sure he wouldn't run off anywhere. "Why are you here?" he asked, unable to keep the groan out of his voice. "Why why WHY are you here?"

Cooper's smirk just got even bigger. "What? Are you not happy to see us?"

Phil shook his head. Hell no he wasn't happy to see them. Mark and James's break-up had led to all three Lawsons disappearing from the backstage scene, which had suited him just fine. Nothing good had ever happened to him when they had been around. "Why are you here?" he asked again. He didn't give a fuck about how rude he was sounding. They were lucky he wasn't calling security on their asses. He knew for a fact James wasn't supposed to be backstage and he was sure Cooper and Connor had a ban on them too.

"Momma and Poppa Bear went to Fiji for a few weeks," Cooper replied. "Taylor's got kiddie patrol and I'm here with Captain Doofus over here."

"I am NOT Captain Doofus," Connor said, sticking his lower lip out in a pout. He was trying to wrench himself out of Cooper's grip but was having no luck with it. "Daddy told you to be NICE to me. And Taylor did too."

"Shut it Connor."

"Nattie! Help me!"

Without hesitation Nattie punched Cooper in the stomach and pulled Connor over to her. "Is that better?" she asked.

He nodded and dropped his head against hers like a big puppy. "Thank you Nattie." He saw the glare Cooper was giving him and stuck his tongue out triumphantly. He knew Cooper wouldn't cross Nattie to get to him. He liked keeping his limbs where they were.

"Well this has been fun," Phil said as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder. "But I really got to get-"

"We should all go out after the show," Natalya suddenly said, giving him a nice little vindictive look. Bitch was putting him in a bad position on purpose. "Get something to eat and uh…catch up."

Cooper snickered at the look on Phil's face. "I don't think Princess Straightedge wants to join us."

"Don't call me that," Phil snapped. He absolutely despised that nickname. He violently hated James for giving it to him. If he didn't have good cause to fear for his well being around the guy, he would have kicked his ass for it."

"Awwww why not Princess?" Cooper was apparently going to be as obnoxious as James now since the older man wasn't there to do it himself. Oh joy. "Are you too good to hang out with us anymore?"

"I've got better-"

"You're going," Nattie said shortly. "And that's final."

"But-"

"Are you contradicting her?" Beth put more than a little bit of a threat in that sentence and Phil found himself deflating and shaking his head. "That's what I thought."

Cooper and Connor were both laughing at him and Phil angrily wrenched himself out of Cooper's grip and stormed off to the locker room. He slammed the door shut behind him and literally threw his bag down before kicking the nearest locker in frustration.

"You okay man?" Phil hadn't seen him at first but John Cena was sitting there at one of the benches, looking at him with wide eyes.

"I'm fine," Phil muttered without looking at him. He just glared at the locker before kicking it again and then picking up his bag so he could start getting ready for his match. He hadn't looked to see where he was on the card yet but he could do that after he got changed.

"Are you sure?" Typical Cena. Always soooo concerned. Phil knew he was just trying to be nice but now he was far from in the mood to put up with it.

"I said I'm FINE," he growled. "Just drop it, okay?"

"Okay okay." John held up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry. Forget I even asked."

…

"What do you guys want to do?" Morrison asked as he changed back into his street clothes. He and Alex Riley had just taken on Miz and R-Truth in an "impromptu" match and now the four of them were looking for something to do. The only thing they had in the morning were their flights home so the night was theirs. The only thing they needed was something to do.

"The same thing we always do Pinky: try to take over the world," Mike said with a smirk. Alex immediately snorted and Mor rolled his eyes at him. Ron however, just looked confused.

"Why is your name Pinky now?" he asked Mor. He didn't give him a chance to answer before turning to Mike. "And since when did you want to take over the world?"

"…Ron…" Mike paused, trying to figure out if Ron was joking or not. Apparently he wasn't because he looked way WAY too serious. "It was a line from a children's cartoon. You know, _Pinky and the Brain_?"

"…Oh." Ron looked at the others awkwardly before shrugging his shoulders. "Now see I hadn't ever heard of that."

"You poor unfortunate soul," Alex said with a shake of his head. He got up and patted Ron on the shoulder before looking at Mor and Mike. "I say we go out to the bar. How's that sound?"

"Sounds like what we always do," Mike replied. "But it's a solid plan nonetheless. I'm in."

Mor rolled his eyes a bit but nodded along anyway. He was in too. It wasn't like he had any better ideas. Maybe he would get some after a few drinks.

Ron had no objections to Alex's plan so they finished changing and left the arena. Mor hummed under his breath, hoping that the others were too distracted to notice that the song was Pocketful of Sunshine. _Stupid Natasha Bedingfield. Stupid Easy A for having to play THAT song. Fucking worse song ever…_ Despite thinking that though, he continued to hum the damn song. Mike eventually started to look at him funny but before he could say anything Alex and Ron both stopped in their tracks and pointed up to the sky.

"Look!" Ron slapped Mor on the chest with one hand and pointed up in the sky with the other. "Look man look!"

"Wha-" Something very bright flashed across the sky, going so fast that it was gone almost as soon as Mor saw it. "Uh…what the hell was that?"

"What was what?" Mike asked. "I didn't see it."

"You're kidding," Alex said incredulously. "You didn't see that thing?"

"No. What are you even talking about there was nothing-"

"It was this big light," Ron interrupted. "Moving real fast."

"Like a shooting star," Alex piped in.

Mike snorted at that. "Oh come on. That's a bunch of bullshit."

"It is not! We saw it!"

"And you're the most reliable witnesses?"

Ron shook his head and looked at Mor for support. "Come on man. Tell me you saw it."

"I saw _something_," Mor admitted slowly, not sure if he should say it because he wasn't sure if he wanted to egg them on. The only thing that made him do it was the fact that he went out of his way to not make Mike right as often as possible. He got way too obnoxious when that happened. "But I couldn't even begin to tell you what it was. It could have just been a plane."

"Planes don't move that fast dawg," Ron said. "It gotta be one of those shooting star things that Alex said."

"Or it was a giant meteorite that's gonna crash into us and kill us all," Mike said sarcastically. "Or maybe it was absolutely NOTHING and you guys are all IDIOTS!"

"Or maybe you are the idiot," Alex argued. "You ever think of that?"

Mike scowled at him. "Whatever." He started to walk away. "I'm going. You all can stay here and talk about your imaginary flying stars if you want. I've got better things to do."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Mor muttered as he rolled his eyes. Mike was acting like some bratty five year old that didn't want to play what the other kids were playing. It was beyond ridiculous.

"He just mad he didn't see it," Ron said wisely. "If he saw it and we didn't he be alllll over us."

"You think we could torment him the rest of the night with it?" Alex asked with a smirk.

"Nah," Mor replied. "He won't last that long. He'll crack and ditch us in two hours, tops."

"You think?"

"Mhm."

"Wanna bet?"

Mor smirked. Alex was a complete dumbass to bet against him. Everyone knew that he knew Mike better than anyone. This bet was about as sure of a thing as it could get. "Sure. Hundred bucks and loser buys the winner dinner for a week?"

"You're on."


	2. Chapter 2

Ted threw his head back as he downed another shot of whiskey, wrinkling his nose as the alcohol burned his throat as it went down. "Blech," he groaned. "Shit tastes like shit."

Cody snorted loudly before downing his own shot. "Woooow Teddy. Have you ever considered becoming a philosopher? That was some really deep stuff right there."

Ted glared at him for his sarcasm. "No but I have thought about putting my boot up your ass."

"Boys…" Randy said warningly. He poured them all another round of shots before putting the bottle back on the middle of the table. "Don't make me separate you two."

Cody and Ted exchanged glances. Cody stuck his tongue out immaturely and Ted kicked his shin from under the table. Randy just rolled his eyes and shook his head. This was the first time all three of them had all hung out since the Legacy days yet here they were and nothing really had seemed to change. Randy was acting like the irritated big brother while Cody and Ted alternated between bickering with each other and teaming up to annoy the shit out of Randy. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same…though not really. Not for Ted anyway. He was the one moving backwards while Cody and Randy were moving forward. Randy's inner demons and most of his inner jackass seemed to be in peace now and he was enjoying the success that he could have had even sooner if he could have gotten out his own way. As for Cody, while the "dashing" gimmick had caused quite a bit of heckling from the fans and co-workers alike, the "disfiguring" of his face had done wonders for him. He was rocking the delusional and deranged character to a tee and one couldn't argue with the success. A win over Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania, a so far pretty impressive Intercontinental title reign as opposed to the constantly losing non-title matches or just holding it for the next guy, and now an upcoming feud with Randy himself. Out of all the "futures" of the WWE, he was the one shining the brightest.

And where did that leave Ted? Pretty much nowhere. He was the odd man out at the table. While Cody and Randy were featured all over Raw and Smackdown he was lucky if he got to wrestle in the dark match before the show. There had been brief moments where a spotlight was teased on him, but then it would just get yanked away from him. He wasn't alone in that aspect. Morrison, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne-just some of the names that had gotten screwed by the fical and political minefield that was WWE these days. So many "rising stars" yet so few actually rose to the top. The rest were doomed to be stuck in the mid-card purgatory until they were wished the best in their future endeavors.

"Yo! Ted!" Cody snapped his fingers in front of Ted's face to get his attention. "Snap out of it buddy."

Ted blinked before jerking his head back away from Cody's fingers. "Sorry." He grabbed his shot glass and downed his whiskey once again. "Just thinking."

Cody smirked and patted the top of Ted's head. "We figured that. We saw some smoke coming out of your ears."

Ted's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Are you just trying to piss me off tonight? Is that it?"

"Awww Teeeeeeddddddyyyyy don't be sensitive." The alcohol was already starting to get to Cody so it wasn't exactly surprising to Ted when Cody got out of his chair and climbed into his lap. There were affectionate drunks and then there was Cody, who pretty much just liked to molest anyone within the area. "I'm just teasing you."

"Well knock it off," Ted said as he tried to move his head back away from Cody's fingers, which were in the process of being shoved into his mouth. Not long ago it wasn't something he would have minded. But as it was in the ever lovely process of their on again/off again relationship, they were off again and this was more personal than he wanted to get.

"Cody!" Randy growled. "Fucking stop. I'm NOT watching you pull this shit all night."

"Oooh someone's cranky…maybe you need cheering up." Cody got off Ted and went towards Randy. Before he got three steps though he got the biggest of death glares from Randy. It managed to go through his mind that now was not the time and he reluctantly sat down in his chair and pouted.

"What crawled up your ass and died?" Ted asked. He hadn't exactly been thrilled with Cody's behavior but Randy's reaction hadn't really been necessary.

Randy just shrugged and didn't give a verbal answer. Lovely. He was in one of THOSE moods. Ted shook his head and didn't even bother to try to pry anything more out of him. He just grabbed their bottle of whiskey and took on the pouring duties. They drank in silence, polishing off that bottle and then a bottle of tequila after it. By the time they were done they were all pleasantly wasted. Ted stumbled back up to the bar to try to get more but the bartender refused to give him any. Apparently he thought they had enough.

"Guys we gots…we gots to go somewhere else," he told them after he made his way back to their table. "We've gotta go they won't give us anymore."

"Whaaat?" Cody looked at him with a completely dumbfounded look on his face. "Why not?"

"We've had too much apparently."

"Whaaat?" Cody shook his head in disbelief. "That bastard. How dare he judge us."

Randy stood up and jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go. I've got some stuff back in my tour bus."

"Fucking yesssss…" Cody was all over that shit. He got up and started to follow Randy, only to succeed in tripping over his feet and falling down to the floor. "Owww!"

Ted rolled his eyes and helped Cody back up to his feet, nearly losing his own balance as he bent down. He managed to stay on his feet though and he put Cody's arm over his shoulder and pretty much dragged him out of the bar. Randy was already outside, his eyes slowly gazing across the parking lot. "Where's your bus?" Ted asked. He was struggling to keep both himself and Cody up on his feet. All the booze he had consumed was really starting to hit him now.

"…I don't remember."

"You're joking." The glare Ted got after saying that pointed to him not joking. "What the hell Randy? Doesn't your driver follow you around and shit?"

Randy shook his head. "I got a ride over here from Cena-"

"And where the hell did he run off too?"

"How the fuck should I know? I'm not his babysitter."

"Call the bus man," Cody said, his words slurring so badly it took Randy and Ted a moment to figure out what the hell he had just said. "Tell him to driiiiive and get us."

"…I was going to." No he wasn't. Randy hadn't even thought about that until Cody said that but he wasn't going to admit that. Drunk or not, he wasn't letting Cody know he had said something smart. He reached into his pockets to pull out his phone but quickly discovered there was no phone to be had. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "Fuck fuck fuck." He checked again and no phone magically appeared. "I think I lost it."

Ted groaned. "Well I don't have mine-"

"Why the hell not?"

"I forgot it in my bag!"

"Well give me your keys then."

"Fuck you, you're drunk. I'm not letting you drive and kill us all in a fiery fucking blaze. It's ALWAYS the passengers that get offed. The driver fucking always lives to go to jail."

"Well YOU'RE not driving then either," Randy snapped.

"Then I guess we'll walk." Not the most appealing of ideas but there really wasn't another one to go with. Ted tightened his grip on Cody and took off, groaning as the younger man dragged his feet and made it even more difficult than it should have been. "I meant YOU had to walk too Codes."

"Don't wanna," Cody groaned. "Don't feel good."

"Yeah well don't puke on me please. Help me get your ass back to the hotel and you can go into the bathroom and you can get as sick as you want." Ted forced himself to walk faster and eventually Cody started moving his feet as well, though he was having a hard time walking straight ahead. "Would you mind helping?" Ted asked, casting a glance back at Randy. "Please?"

Randy sighed and reluctantly caught up so he could grab a hold of Cody as well. The three of them slowly made their way back to the hotel, having to stop a couple of times so they could take Cody over to the bushes so he could puke. "Fucking sick," Randy muttered under his breath.

"You were the one who wanted tequila and whiskey," Ted helpfully reminded him.

Randy just grunted and once Cody was done puking they resumed trying to drag him back to the hotel. Ted didn't remember it being this far away. He wasn't even sure if they were going the right way but he didn't say anything about it. He just kept going until the overpowering smell of smoke made him stop and choke.

"What the fuck is THAT?"

"Fire probably," Randy replied. He pointed to the empty church parking lot off to their right, where smoke was rising up from a bed of flowers.

"How do you know it's a fire?"

"Well if there's SMOKE there's generally FIRE." Randy pulled Cody away from Ted and gave him a look that told him how retarded he thought it was. "Now go check it out. See how big it is."

Now that was a dumb order if there ever was one. If Ted had been sober he would have told Randy to go fuck himself. This wasn't the Legacy days anymore. He wasn't Randy's stupid flunky inside and outside of the ring. But the alcohol completely brought down his defenses and independence and he soon found himself making his way across the parking lot, obeying the order like a good little bitch.

The smoke itself wasn't as heavy as it originally thought it was, but the smell of it was just beyond anything he had ever come across. It turned his stomach so badly that he had to stop and put his hand over his mouth. Bile rose up and burned the back of his throat, making it hard to resist the urge to throw up all over the place. Somehow he managed it and he made himself keep going forward. The closer he got, the more his imagination started getting away from him. The stench invading his nostrils couldn't be something as tame as some flowers burning up. It had to be a body. A body was either burning or had been burning and he was about to stumble on to some horrific crime scene. He stopped again and took a deep breath, bracing himself for what he was sure to see.

"What is it?" Randy asked impatiently. He tried to slap Cody awake as Ted peered through the smoke down into the flower bed.

"It's…it's…what the fuck…" Ted shook his head in disbelief.

"It's a what?"

"It's a rock!"

"A fucking _what_?"

"A fucking ROCK! Fucking deaf son of a bitch…" That last part was muttered under Ted's breath as he knelt down to get an even closer look. The smoke that was coming off the thing made his eyes water and he had to wipe them with the back of his hand before trying to get that closer look again. The rock was about the size of a basketball and it was completely black and charred up from being burned. The fire had gone out by this point and Ted hovered his hand right above it to feel how much heat was radiating off it.

"What kind of rock is it?" Randy was trying to come closer to see for himself, but he was having a hard time because Cody was about half passed out.

"How the fuck should I know? Do I look like-" Ted's voice trailed off as the rock cracked open right in front of his eyes. "Whaaaaat the fuck…."

Something shot out of the newly formed crack faster than he could even blink. It hit him right in his chest, going right through his shirt and piercing his skin. He screamed and fell backwards, hitting the pavement hard with his elbows. He looked at his chest, opening the hole in his shirt and wiping the blood away to see a mark the size of a pin prick on his chest. For a moment he thought whatever had hit him had just fallen off…then he felt something move inside him. Something was actually moving inside of his chest, wiggling it's way upwards inside of him.

Randy's eyes widened as the most blood curdling scream he had ever heard in his life came out of Ted's mouth. "Ted!" He unceremoniously dropped Cody down to the ground and stumbled over to Ted, whose eyes had rolled into the back of his head as his body fell into a nasty looking seizure. "TED!" He grabbed the younger man and tried to hold him still while slapping him across the face. "Ted this is NOT funny!" He slapped him harder to try to get him to snap out of it. He was actually getting angry at Ted for this. He was not the kind of person to take being freaked out that well so it was just coming at as anger. "Fucking STOP it before I fucking kick your ass!"

Ted didn't stop. He couldn't. He couldn't do anything. His screaming had stopped because his lungs had tightened up so much he couldn't even breathe. He could only lay there, his eyes not seeing anything as he felt the thing inside him continue it's journey upwards. The last coherent thought he had was the realization that it was actually heading up towards his brain…and then a blinding pain went through his head and then there was nothing.

"You fucking son of a-" Randy went to smack Ted again but stopped when he saw how still the younger man went. "Ted?" He lowered his hand and swallowed heavily, realizing then how dry his throat was. "Ted?" He shook his head to try to clear the booze fueled fuzziness. "Ted?" He clumsily put his fingers all over Ted's neck, searching for a pulse that wasn't there. "Oh fuck…"


	3. Chapter 3

Phil slumped down in the booth he was sitting at and picked at his food unhappily. The show was long over and instead of being back in his hotel like he wanted to be, he was stuck an at all night diner with Natalya, Cooper and Connor. He had tried to escape as soon as his match had gotten over but that hadn't worked out very well for him. He had been caught and dragged here against his will because the Lawsons just seemed to live to make him miserable. And Natalya, being an honorary member of that fucked up family, facilitated their actions and enjoyed them immensely.

"Oh come on Philly, cheer up," Natalya said as she munched on her French fries. She was sitting next to him while Cooper and Connor sat across from them. "We're supposed to be having a good time."

Phil shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. "How am I supposed to have a nice time when I didn't even want to come in the first place?"

Cooper smirked and flung a piece of hamburger meat at Phil's face. "Oh come on Princess. You gotta admit that you missed us a little."

Phil wrinkled his nose and recoiled as the meat hit him right on the chin. "No I didn't. And DON'T do that you fucking emo ass mother fucker."

"Emo ass mother fucker?" Cooper smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Wow Princess. That's some pretty strong language right there."

"You need your mouth washed out with SOAP!" Connor declared with a firm nod.

"Try it and die retard." That comment got him kicks from both Cooper and Connor and a hard elbow to the gut from Natalya. "Ow!"

"Fucking serves your right," Nattie growled, giving him such a nasty glare he was lucky it didn't kill him. "Jackass." She elbowed him once again for good measure.

He winced in pain and scooted as far into the corner as possible. "Fuck you all. Fucking those two aren't even supposed to be around any of the talent!" He pointed to Cooper and Connor and gave Nattie a heated glare.

"That's Daddy!" Connor corrected.

"Yeah," Cooper chimed in. "It's Dad who has the lifetime ban, not us."

"Well you should have one too," Phil muttered. "Because you two are just as annoying as he is."

"Why exactly are you in such a cranky mood tonight?" Cooper asked. "Seriously. I know you're usually a bitch to be around but this is starting to get ridiculous."

"Well what exactly did you expect from me?" Phil replied incredulously. "I mean really. All you've guys have ever done is make fun of me and try to make my life miserable. Why would I be happy to spend any time with you at all?"

"…Because you love us?"

Connor's innocent voice was intended to make Phil melt but that wasn't exactly what happened. Phil just rolled his eyes and tried to climb out of the booth, even with Natalya right in his way. "Move," he ordered. "I'm leaving."

"No," Natalya replied.

"Oh Jesus just let him go if he's gonna be a baby," Cooper told her. "Seriously. I'm not dealing with it."

"I know but I don't want to get up until I'm done."

"Oh Christ on a fucking cross," Phil growled. He hopped over the back of his seat and started to head for the door when Beth Phoenix walked in and practically made a beeline for their table. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Did you guys hear?" She actually looked mildly shaken up which was definitely not an easy thing to do with her. Out of all the girls in the locker room she was typically the most stoic. If she was actually shaken up by something it had to be big.

"Hear what?" Nattie asked. Cooper was looking pretty interested as well while Connor was giving absolutely no fucks. He jus snatched a couple of Nattie's French fries even though he had a whole bunch of his own and put them both in his mouth, letting them hang out as he pretended they were fangs.

"Ted's dead."

"Ted's _what_?" Nattie's jaw dropped in shock.

Phil's head immediately snapped in Cooper and Connor's direction. "You killed Ted?"

"What?" Cooper immediately shook his head. "No! We've been with Nat this whole time we didn't do shit."

"What the hell happened?" Nattie asked, getting up to her feet and not even looking at Phil as she slapped him upside the head. "Was he in like an accident or something?"

Beth shook her head. "No. Nobody really knows what happened though. I just know Hunter got a call from the cops saying that he's dead and Randy and Cody were with him when it happened. I don't even know where they are for sure."

"Well shit." Phil wasn't even sure what to say. He had never really been close to Ted in any sense in the word but it wasn't like he had really wished anything bad on the guy. "What the fuck should we do?"

"You could get me ice cream," Connor suggested. He blinked in surprise as everyone else gave him a dirty look. "What? What did I say?"

…

The scene in the church parking lot was complete chaos. Hunter got there to find that the police had taped the area off and were trying to keep the group of spectators that had gathered around back. "Excuse me…excuse me…move it damn it!" He quickly ran out of patience and just started pushing past people to get to the front of the crowd. As soon as he got up there one of the officers put his hands up and tried to push Hunter back.

"Sir you can't-"

"That's MY dead employee there," Hunter snapped, pointing to Ted's sheet covered body, which was being loaded up on the stretcher. "And those are MY employees you're questioning." Now he pointed to Randy and the barely awake Cody, who were being questioned by a couple of detectives. "I'm coming through damn it." He didn't give the officer any more time to object. He just pushed past him and went over to Randy and Cody, who didn't notice that he was even there until he was right next to them. "What happened?" That did come out a little more harshly than he meant it to. He couldn't really help it though. Word had already gotten back to Vince about Ted being dead and the news hadn't been taken very well. The last time someone had died on the active roster, it was Benoit and that led to the murder/suicide publicity nightmare. Given the fact that Hunter was told to find out what happened at any cost and then report right back, he was sure his father-in-law was more concerned with not having another scandal on their hands and not Ted's death itself.

"I don't know," Randy replied while Cody said something completely unintelligible.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hunter asked angrily. "You were right there!"

"Sir-" One of the detectives was trying to get him away but of course he was being ignored.

"I mean I don't know!" Randy snapped. "He had like some fucking seizure or something! "

"Did he take anything?"

"He had some drinks…"

"But did he take any drugs?"

"I don't think so."

That wasn't really a great answer for Hunter. If Ted did take something he was going to need to know about it. He wasn't going to get the answers he needed tonight though. That much was clear. Randy didn't know shit, Cody was clearly too wasted to even know his own name and any results from the autopsy was going to take awhile to get. He was going to have to go back to Vince with nothing, which sucked for him. "Fuck!" As he kicked a stray rock on the ground, not a single person noticed the way Ted's body suddenly twitched underneath the sheet it was under.


	4. Chapter 4

"What the hell do you mean you don't know what happened?" All the way in Stamford, Connecticut, Vince was having a meltdown of such proportions that Hunter was just wincing on the other line. Lately, Vince had been having more and more blowups backstage and the big talk was that he was cracking. Of course that had been the talk for awhile but even it was getting to the point that his own family was really starting to believe it. And while the whole him as COO thing was just a storyline for now, Hunter found that he was getting set to actually take over the position a lot sooner than he originally thought. "Didn't you ASK Randy and Cody?"

"Of course I did," Hunter replied.

"Well what did they say?"

"Randy said he had a seizure before he died. Cody was too drunk to say shit. That's all I know right now."

"Did he take anything?"

"Randy said he didn't see him do anything."

"But he could have. God DAMN it Hunter!"

"What? Don't yell at ME! He's been clean with every drug test we've ever given him. We had absolutely NO reason to expect him to take anything-if that's what even happened. Maybe there's a medical issue that was missed. We won't know anything until we get the autopsy back."

Vince didn't care for that answer and he let Hunter know it. Hunter sighed and tuned him out, just letting him yell because it would save someone else from having to go through it. He wished that he wasn't on his cell phone so he could text Stephanie and warn her that Vince had gone off-if she hadn't already heard it already. There was a chance he had already gone off on her and that meant Hunter would hear about it from her as soon as he was off the phone with Vince. _Fuck me I just can't win…_

…

Erica Sheldon put on her rubber gloves as she stared at the body that had just been brought into her. It was only six in the morning and she was starting her day off with a somewhat famous body. Ted DiBiase Jr., the son of the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. As the only girl surrounded by four brothers, she had grown up watching pro wrestling along with them and remembered the older Ted DiBiase quite well. She didn't watch it nearly as often as she used to but she did tune in from time to time and did know who this kid was. Poor guy. He hadn't really lived up to his father's big shoes at all and now he would never actually get the chance to.

She grabbed her tape recorder and turned it on so she could begin. "This is Dr. Erica Sheldon and I am about to perform the autopsy on Theodore Marvin DiBiase Jr." She moved the sheet further down his body and started to reach for her tools when his body twitched. She froze, unsure of what she just saw. There was no way that was possible. He was dead and she was just seeing things. She closed her eyes real tight and shook her head before opening her eyes once more and trying to get back to business. On his chest she could see a tiny little mark that looked like it came from a needle or something. She went to make a remark about it but never got the chance. The moment she opened her mouth to say the words he sat up and snarled before sinking his teeth into her neck.

…

The instant he tasted the blood in his mouth Ted opened his eyes and groaned loudly. He had absolutely no idea where he was or how he had even got there. He didn't care though. He just sunk his teeth deeper into the woman's throat, ripping away chunks of her flesh, relishing the way it felt in his mouth before swallowing it down. He chased it down with her blood, relishing the sweet coppery taste in his mouth. There was no part of him that was questioning why he was doing what he was doing or telling him that this was disgusting or wrong or anything like that. All he could focus on was the overwhelming hunger he was feeling. He had never felt anything like it before in his life. He pushed himself off the table and fell to the floor, landing on top of the woman with a grunt. She was dead already but still he kept eating, not anywhere close to satisfied. He grabbed the scalpel that had fallen off the tray of tools and used it to cut her open, starting at her chest and going down just past her stomach. He slid his fingers into the incision he made and ripped her open wider, sticking his hands all the way in once he got her opened enough and pulling out her organs. He stuffed as many of them into his mouth as he could, actually shivering in delight as he chowed down on them. The hunger was starting to subside slightly-but only slightly. He was going to need more. Much much more.


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone was called for a meeting a few hours before the next episode of Raw. The tables in catering had been pushed up against the wall and all the chairs had been lined up in several rows, the wresters sitting up towards the front, the referees in the middle and all the production people in the back. Cooper and Connor were lingering outside the room, close enough to hear what was going on but hidden away so they wouldn't be seen. Connor had wanted to go sit down with everyone else but Cooper wouldn't let him. Not only was he not entirely sure Phil was wrong about them having a ban on them or not. Even if they didn't, Connor still couldn't go into the meeting because he couldn't behave for shit. As soon as they would sit down he'd start getting everyone off topic or want to do something else.

The mood inside the room was uncomfortable, to say the least. Phil was sitting in the row before the referees with Beth, Natalya, Morrison, Mike, Ron and Alberto. In the row in front of them Kelly and Eve were talking quietly to each other. Eve had her arm around Kelly's shoulder, who was sniffling loudly and dabbing her eyes with a tissue. That confused Phil quite a bit, just for the fact that as far as he knew, Kelly and Ted had never been close. At least not close enough to warrant such an upset reaction from her. Had they been friends and Phil had just completely missed it? Was Kelly just THAT sensitive. Or had Ted joined the growing list of men Kelly had fucked around with? That seemed like the most likely option to Phil. The locker room was just full of people that bounced from one relationship to another, Kelly being rather notorious for it. When she and Ted would have hooked was beyond Phil. It couldn't have been too recent he didn't think because she had just broken up with Justin Gabriel not that long ago and was supposed to be dating some hockey player. _And why am I suddenly thinking so much about this? God help me I think I've become one of the chicks._

Up at the front of the room, Vince, Stephanie, Hunter and John Laurinaitis were gathered in a little circle, talking quietly amongst themselves. They were the ones who had called this meeting but they had yet to get it started. "How much longer do you think this is going to take?" Phil whispered to Morrison.

Mor shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Hopefully not too much longer. I gotta go to the bathroom."

"I didn't need to know that buddy."

Mike smirked, totally listening in on their conversation. "If you think that's bad Punkaroo, you really don't want to know some of the shit he's said to me before. Our fair JoMo can be a gross little bitch when he wants to be."

Mor rolled his eyes at his ex. "Shut up Miz-Bitch."

"Make me Miss Glitter Abs."

"That's MR. Glitter Abs to you."

Phil shook his head. If he didn't know better he would have thought they had gotten back together or something. They always fought more when they dated, as proven during their entire stint as a tag team and during just at the beginning of the year, before breaking up again by the Royal Rumble. Mor was back with Drew McIntyre again (or at least he was supposed to be-the fact that they weren't sitting next to each other pointed to problems in paradise) and Mike was denying rumors that he and Ron were fucking around with each other. He had made the same claims about his relationships with Alex Riley and Mor at first, so odds were, some stuff had gone down. _Wonder how Maryse feels about that…oh wait, I'm not supposed to care._ Phil chewed on his lower lip, doing his best to act like he gave absolutely no shits about the places his mind was taking him.

"Can I have your attention please?" the ever raspy voice of John Laurinaitis asked, getting everyone's eyes on him. He had the ever present deer in the headlights look he always had when he had to speak in front of any kind of crowd but he proceeded on like a good little corporate puppet he was. "Mr. McMahon would like to say a few words to you all."

Phil rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest. It was ridiculous to him that Vince needed this clown to introduce him but it wasn't exactly surprising. Vince nodded at Laurinaitis as he stepped forward and then slowly scanned his eyes across all the people sitting before him. "As you all know by now, our own Ted DiBiase Jr. died just a few short days ago. From what we still don't know but we are making sure the answer is found out as fast as it possibly could.

_Of course you are,_ Phil thought, barely repressing a snort. _You want to know whether he O.D. on something so you know whether to pretend he never existed or not. _

"Now, some of us did know Ted better than others." Vince's eyes drifted over to Randy and Cody as he said that. "But I think we can all agree that he would have wanted the show to go on."

Phil pretty much stopped listening after that. He found that whole little spiel of "the show must go on" to be a pile of shit. Now he couldn't be sure about anyone else because he couldn't read their minds but he knew that he wouldn't be all for the show going on if he died. He'd rather just have like the world just stop and have that be that. Of course he knew that could never be but still, the whole "show must go on" mentality just didn't feel right-at least not when he was so sure that Vince was more concerned about the money he was going to lose if he didn't have Raw that night instead of what the person that died would have really wanted. From the sounds of it, they were going to halt storylines for the night and just wrestle, though since he wasn't listening he couldn't be sure. Whatever. He would just do it and maybe talk to Randy and Cody and see how they were holding up. They didn't look like they were doing that great, and that thought was only reaffirmed when they were the first ones to bail after the meeting was adjourned.

…

"I can't believe he's gone." Cody had lost track of how many times he had said that so far. It felt like the millionth time he had said it but it was worth repeating. None of this felt real. It really didn't. It felt like some kind of awful dream that he just wanted to wake up from. It wasn't a dream though. There would be no waking up. Ted was gone and they still didn't even know what had happened to him. He had tried to call his family to see how they had been but hadn't been able to get through. They probably had taken the phone off the hook or something. He couldn't say he blamed them for it. He would try back again later though, and if he still didn't get an answer sometime soon he would just go to their house and talk to them himself. He had no idea what he would say really, but he would go and try to think of something.

Randy nodded in agreement. He hadn't really been saying much, mostly because he saw no sense in repeating the same thing over and over again like Cody. It didn't feel real to him either though, if he was going to be completely honest with himself. He had gone over the events of that night over and over again in his head, even though the memories were pretty hazy. He shouldn't have gotten drunk like that. Sure he had had no way of knowing of what was going to happen but he shouldn't have gotten so fucked up. One of them should have stayed sober. All three of them fucked up had never worked out well in the past and this by far had the worst result ever.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he had to stop laying this guilt trip on himself. It hadn't been his fault and nothing he probably could have done anyway. Only reason he was really getting into this whole self blame thing was because other people had been putting it in his head as they talked to him about what happened. The way they had all looked at him…especially Hunter and Vince…it just bothered him. The old him would have gotten extremely defensive about it but he had forced himself to keep quiet and not react too much to it all. As much as it bothered him, he had matured to the point that he realized throwing a temper tantrum would do nothing but land him in more hot water. Some people needed a form of a scapegoat; someone they could say should have been watching Ted or at least be sober enough to give a better story about what had happened. And of course nobody expected it to be Cody. Cody, drunk or sober, had always been the least useful of the three of them. Two of them now…just two…as bad as it sounded Randy felt like he was going to need a drink just to process that.

…

Down in Mississippi, Ted sat in the middle of the living room floor, his mouth and hands drenched in blood, observing all the damage he had done. The bodies of his once grieving family members were strung out all over the place. Why he had come all the way here just to kill his own wasn't something he could answer. Something in his mind had told him to do it so he had done it. And what had he felt as he did it? Absolutely nothing. He had felt nothing towards his own family. No love, no anything-if his memories hadn't told him they were his family they would have just as soon be strangers to him.

He slowly got back up to his feet and licked the blood off his hands before wiping his mouth off with the back of his arm and licking that up too. The hunger was satisfied for now but now he needed to do something else. There was a stirring in his stomach that his instincts told him could only be satisfied by one way.

It was time to breed.


	6. Chapter 6

"Do you think it hurt?"

Eve frowned a bit and looked over at Kelly. They were walking around the arena parking lot, getting some "girl time". Raw last night had been the tribute show to Ted but now Smackdown it was just time to get back to business as usual. Kelly and Eve were at the Smackdown tapings tonight to team up with Alicia to take on Beth, Natalya and Tamina and they were supposed to be meeting up with Alicia to talk strategy, but Eve had noticed that something was seriously wrong with Kelly. She had been trying to act like that wasn't the case but she really wasn't that good at hiding her emotions. "What do you mean?"

Kelly tightened her grip on Eve's arm and swallowed hard. "Do you think it hurt when Ted…you know….when he…"

"Died?" Eve sighed and pursed her lips as Kelly nodded. "I don't know," she said slowly. "I mean, I've never actually died before so it's not like I would know really." She saw the look on Kelly's face and sighed again before brushing some of her hair out of her face. "Kel? Was there something going on between you and Ted?" The question had to be asked. Kelly was taking this a lot harder than she would have expected her to otherwise.

"No…not anymore." Kelly sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "It wasn't like we really dated or anything. We kind of had a short thing after Randy dumped me and Kane made that attempt to stalk me. I was hurt and he and Cody were fighting…it kind of just fizzled out but he was still always nice to me. I just…I just don't understand why people have to die. It's STUPID. It's so STUPID because they die and then they're gone and then everyone that ever loved them are left behind and they don't get a chance to say goodbye or let them know how much they still care…"

Eve had a feeling they were no longer talking about Ted. This was clearly some Test territory right here. She herself had never gotten the chance to meet him but from what she had heard from others and what Kelly had said to her herself, Test had pretty much been the love of Kelly's life at this point. She had never really truly gotten over his death and some blamed his death as the reason to why she just kind of jumped from man to man these days. "You know, there's supposed to be a party tonight," she said, deciding it would be best if they just got off this subject. Staying on it would only upset her more. "That Cooper Lawson guy is throwing it. It's supposed to be a bit of celebration of Ted's li-"

Kelly snorted and rolled her eyes. "Cooper don't give two shits about Ted. He just wants to get drunk and everyone's jumping on board because they're a bunch of assholes."

"Or they need the distraction," Eve said with a wince. She was wondering if she was now in the asshole category because she had brought it up. "We could go for a little while. Just see how it is, get our mind off things."

"I don't know…you don't think it feels wrong? Ted's DEAD and we're talking about going to a party!"

"We'll leave if it gets too obnoxious. I promise. I just…I don't like the thought of you just laying in bed and crying again."

Kelly winced. "You heard that?"

Eve nodded.

There was a moment of silence after that. "Okay," Kelly said reluctantly. "Just for awhile though. And when I say I'm done, that means I'm done. Okay?"

Eve nodded and squeezed her arm tightly. "Okay."

…

"This is going to turn into full fledged debauchery," Phil declared as he looked around the club. Cooper had gone all out, renting out the entire place just for the whole lot of them. It must have cost a small fortune but Phil knew damn well it wasn't his own money he was using. It was James's. He was nearly thirty years old and he mooched off James and his stepmother like a fucking bum. He had never had a real job in his entire life. The only thing he did was watch Connor and even that he didn't do very well. Like right now, Cooper was having the bartender serve him drink after drink after drink while Connor ran wild, tormenting the ever holy fuck out of Jinder Mahal and Tyson Kidd.

"Oh would you stop?" Natalya said out of irritation. "Seriously, you're starting to get on my nerves."

"Yeah really," Beth agreed. She was sipping on a drink of her own, though it was only her first one so she was already better off than a lot of people there. "I don't want to be here much more than you do but you don't see me whining about it."

Phil frowned a bit. "If you don't want to be here then how did-" he stopped as he saw the dirty look Beth threw Nattie's way. "Ahhhh…she got you too?"

"She can be more annoying than a tiny needy dog when she wants to be."

"Hey!" Nattie looked completely offended by that and Phil just had to laugh. "Bitch!" She reached over and punched Beth really hard on her arm.

"Ow!" Beth glared Nattie for nearly making her drop her drink. "You little-"

"Ladies ladies ladies," Phil said, holding up his hands and shaking his head. He needed to try to keep the peace because he was the bystander that would end up getting hurt in the crossfire if they decided to really go at it. "Please. Let's keep the violence down to a bare minimum. The club's not big enough for this showdown."

"We could take it outside," Beth suggested. "Really throw down."

Nattie smirked and downed her drink. "Please. We both know you really couldn't take me."

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that."

…

"Guys guys look," Alex said, leaning over and waving his hand at Mike and Mor's faces. "Look at them." He was pointing to Beth and Natalya with his other hand. "Look. I think they're going to fight or something."

Mike rolled his eyes at his former protégé. "No they're not you idiot. They've done this a thousand times. That glaring is as bad as it's gonna get between the two of them."

"What did if they did fight though?" Mor asked, watching Beth and Nattie seemingly start to bicker and Phil trying (and failing) to play peacemaker. "Who do you guys think would win?"

"Beth," Mike answered automatically.

Alex frowned. "Really? Why?"

"Because she's secretly a man."

"…Dude, I'm going to tell her you said that and watch her tear you to pieces," Morrison said with a shake of his head.

"You even try that and I'm giving your head to your boyfriend on a platter," Mike replied. He looked around. "Where is Loch Ness anyway? I haven't seen him hanging off you in forever."

"That's because we're NOT together anymore smart one."

"Oh so the honeymoon's over again? Oh how sad. I guess I'll just keep the coffee machine I was going to give you guys as a wedding present."

Mor gave him one of the dirtiest looks he could possibly muster.

"I think Nattie would win," Alex said, either purposefully trying to head off the upcoming argument or too dumb and oblivious to realize the other two weren't on the subject anymore (the latter was the most likely of the bunch-the boy had a history of being dense). "She's got spunk."

"She's got something alright," Mor agreed.

"She's got a tremendous ass," Mike blurted out.

"Dude!"

"What?" Mike shrugged his shoulders innocently. "She's got a nice ass. I can appreciate some junk in the trunk."

"You think she's got the best ass?" Alex asked.

"No…Mickie James had the nicest ass."

"Oh my god I loved it when she wore those skirts to the ring. That was fucking tremendous."

"I know right? The fucking things I would have done-"

"You can keep those to yourself," Mor said with a wrinkled nose. "I don't want to hear them."

"Aw, what's the matter? JoMo feeling sensitive tonight?" Mike went to pinch his cheeks and got smacked really hard across the face for his troubles. "OW!"

…

"Do any of you guys feel like we really don't fit in here?" AJ asked as she looked around. She was sitting with Kaitlyn and Daniel Bryan, him with a Coke and her and Kaitlyn with beers that were barely obtained because they had to spend like twenty minutes explaining to the bartender that she was in fact old enough to drink. He hadn't even wanted to believe the driver's license she had shown him. It wasn't until Cooper and Jay finally got sick of hearing the argument go on and pretty much bullied the bartender into shutting the fuck up and believing her.

Bryan smirked a bit and shrugged his shoulders. "That's kind of business as usual for us though, isn't it?"

He had a point there. AJ and Kaitlyn didn't really fit into any of the other cliques in the diva's locker room and Bryan didn't exactly have the same interest as the majority of the guys in the locker room. Only reason he was even here was because the girls had begged him to come along and keep them company.

"So is this like really like some kind of send off for Ted?" Kaitlyn asked. "Or is that just some kind of really wrong excuse?"

"Jay told me it was supposed to be one last DiBiase Posse Party," Bryan replied. "But since there's booze involved there's no telling how this is going to turn out."

"Maybe we shouldn't have come," AJ said slowly. "I mean we could have-"

"HIIIIII!"

AJ and Kaitlyn both about jumped out of their seats as Connor hopped up on their table for no apparent reason. Connor didn't even realize how much he scared them though. He was too busy waving and trying to get in AJ's face. "Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!"

"…H-hi," she said nervously, trying to scoot back and get him out of her personal space. She had never really even met Cooper or Connor before and only just really even heard about them a few days ago when they showed up to travel with Nattie.

"Connor Connor Connor no no no," Bryan said as he tried to reel the notoriously unstable man child back in. "Leave her alone don't-"

"What's YOUR name?" Connor leaned right in on AJ, totally violating her personal space.

"AJ."

"Isn't that a BOY'S name?"

"It can be a girl's name too," Bryan answered. He was looking around for either Cooper or Natalya so he could get them to come over and control him. They, along with James, were about the only ones who could really manage it. "Now come on, back off you can't-"

"My name is Connor." Of course he was ignoring Bryan. Why listen when he could keep right on doing what he was doing? "Do you want to play with me?"

"Play what?" AJ could see Kaitlyn shaking her head out of the corner of her eye but she found herself asking the question anyway. It felt rude not to.

"In-"

"Connor GET over here!" Cooper yelled from across the room.

"But Coopy-"

"NOW!"

Connor let out a high pitched whine before reluctantly getting off the table and trotting over to his older brother. AJ blinked several times before exchanging glances with Kaitlyn and Bryan. "What the hell just happened?"

Kaitlyn had nothing to say while Bryan just shook his head. "Connor Lawson just happened. You'll get used to him…eventually…maybe…depends on how much patience you have."

…

"How many times have I told you to fucking leave people alone?" Cooper asked as Connor came over. He was standing over by the speakers with Jay and Dolph, hooking up his I-pod to the sound system so they could have some music. Dolph and Jay both tried to volunteer their I-pods but Cooper was doing his because he didn't particularly give a shit what anyone else really wanted. The only person in the place he actually liked was Nattie; Jay and Dolph were only with him because out of the others, he could tolerate them the best while drunk.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Connor said defensively. "I was being NICE."

"You were bugging that poor girl."

"No, I was being NICE. Something YOU know nothing about."

Jay smirked. "He's got a point you know."

"Shut up," Cooper snapped. He quickly finished up with what he was doing, knowing he didn't have long at all before he lost Connor and he started running around like a maniac again. "Find something to listen to," he ordered as he passed the I-pod to Dolph, corralling Connor in further by grabbing him by the scruff of the neck.

Dolph took it, not entirely happy that it was Cooper's choice of music that had won out. He had campaigned for his own because he knew it would actually suit a party; god only knew what Cooper had on his player. "If all I hear is your stepmother I'm going to be pissed."

Cooper shot him the finger. "Fuck you you fucking-"

_Hi Barbie_

_Hi Ken!_

_Do you wanna go for a ride?_

_Sure Ken…_

_Jump in…_

_I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world_

_Life in plastic, it's fantastic_

_You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere_

_Imagination, life is your creation_

"What the FUCK?" Cooper yelled his entire face turning beet red. Both Dolph's and Connor's eyes just about bugged out of their head while Jay just collapsed on the floor in laughter. All eyes in the club turned in their direction and Cooper's face got even redder as he tried to switch the shit. "That is NOT supposed to be on there!"

"Dude-"

_Give me time_

_To realize my crime_

"What the FUCK is this shit Cooper?" Phil yelled from across the room.

"I don't know!" Cooper was just DYING inside. "I didn't fucking put this shit on here!" He glared at Connor. "Were YOU messing with my shit?"

Connor glared at him. "I don't even know how to WORK those things. I would have just BROKE it instead. DADDY and MINDY were playing with it."

"Oh my Christ…"

_Let me love and steal_

_I have danced_

_Inside your eyes_

_How can I be real?_

_Do you really want to hurt me?_

_Do you really want to make me cry?_

"Oh my god," Dolph said, cringing as Jay just started howling and kicking his feet on the floor. "That's enough. We're putting on something else." He turned off the device and unhooked it from the speakers before handing it back to Cooper. "Keep your fagalicious music to yourself please."

"Fag-oh fucking Christ I'm going to KILL Dad," Cooper growled. He let go of Connor and stormed over to the bar, doing his best to ignore all the comments that were coming his way. He needed a drink now in the worst of ways. _Fucking really am going to kill him I swear to god…_

…

Kelly leaned back against the wall, feeling very uncomfortable already and she and Eve just got there. She could see that the majority of the people were already starting to drink way too much, which never led to anything good. It never failed with this group. It wasn't someone "important" in their eyes that died so this "last DiBiase Posse Party" was really just a bunch of bullshit. Fuck it. She just wanted to go but Eve wasn't anywhere in sight. She and Alicia had run off to the bathroom and she had elected to stay behind, not feeling the need to follow them there when she didn't have to go herself. She did that all the time in high school but now it just kind of seemed weird.

She stood there awhile longer, watching everyone around her. Connor had gone back to bug AJ, who was looking at Kaitlyn and Bryan for help. Natalya was too busy bickering with Beth and Phil to notice that Connor needed to be reeled in and Cooper was too busy getting smashed at the bar. Dolph and Jay were fiddling with the sound system (now that Jay was done pissing himself at Cooper's expense), Morrison, Mike and Alex were setting up some kind of drinking contest and had recruited Swagger, Ryder, Cody, Primo, Tyson Kidd and Kofi to join in. The Bellas had Alberto cornered over by the door and Cena was sitting with Randy in the corner. They looked to be the most serious of the bunch and she wanted to join John but Randy being there prevented her from doing so. Not only had he rejected her after their night together on national TV, but then he went on a radio show and not only deny the whole thing never happened, but pretty much called her a slut to boot. No way she wanted to be anywhere near him ever again.

Feeling way too awkward to stay there another minute, she slipped out the side door without anyone being the wiser. Eventually Eve and Alicia were going to notice that she was gone and hopefully they would think to come out here to look for her so she wouldn't have to come back in and tell them she wanted to leave. A slight breeze had picked up since she and Eve arrived at the club and she shivered as she hugged herself. Fuck. She didn't have a coat with her. She rubbed her arms, hoping to warm herself back up as she waited. Every second that went by seemed to last forever. What in the world was taking so long? Being patient was getting harder and harder to do by the minute because she couldn't stay warm no matter how hard she tried. She was going to have to go inside and get Eve she couldn't keep waiting like this.

She turned to do that but before she could even touch the door handle she heard a loud crash behind her. She jumped about a foot in the air and let out a startled scream before slapping a hand over her own mouth to quiet herself. Her brain was telling her that she just needed to go back inside but her feet were completely rooted to the spot in fear. She took her hand off over her mouth and swallowed hard, her eyes darting around frantically to see if she could see anything. "H-hello?" Dumb as fuck to call out like that but she was too scared to even think properly.

She heard a thump this time, this one closer to her. "H-Hello?" She did her best to swallow the giant lump that had formed in her throat. "Is someone there?" Why couldn't she just go inside? She needed to go inside so bad. "This isn't funny you know."

Silence followed that statement. She stood perfectly still for as long as she could stand to, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did she finally went to go inside-only to have someone grab her from behind and put their hand over her mouth to keep her screams muffled as they dragged her away.


	7. Chapter 7

"Where's Kelly?" Eve asked Alicia as they looked around the club. They had just gotten out of the bathroom and Kelly wasn't where they had left her. She wasn't anywhere in the club in fact. They had been looking all around and they didn't see her anywhere.

"Maybe she went to the bathroom while we've been looking for her?" Alicia suggested.

"We would have seen her though," Eve objected. "Wouldn't have we?"

Alicia shrugged. "It's worth a look."

Well that much was true. "Stay here in case you spot her. I'll go back and look." Eve turned around and went back, side stepping the Bellas as they pulled Alberto Del Rio over towards their table. "Sluts," she muttered under her breath. Normally she wasn't one for those kind of catty comments but both Brie and Nikki did have a way of getting under her skin, both on screen and off. Why any of the guys put up with them would have been a mystery if she didn't then remember what usually happened when they got the guys alone in their hotel room. _Yuck yuck yuck NOT a mental image I want…_

She entered the bathroom and looked around. "Kel?" All the stalls were empty. Damn. She wasn't there. Sighing she went back out and headed back to Alicia-only to discover that Alicia wasn't where she left her now. "Oh for crying out loud…" She looked around and the good news was, Alicia wasn't completely missing the way Kelly was. She was just over flirting with Justin Gabriel, who looked flattered but not exactly comfortable. "Oh god damn it…" She about went over there to pull her off and then decided against it. If she wanted to do that shit then fine, whatever. She would just find Kelly on her own.

…

Kelly continued to try to scream despite the hand that was over her mouth and she began to desperately kick her feet as well. It really wasn't doing much good so far. Whoever had her was strong and not at all bothered by the way she was kicking the fuck out of their shins. They just kept carrying her like she weighed nothing, taking her deep into a dark alley. Her eyes widened and she tripled her efforts to get away. There was only one way this could go. She was going to get raped. She was going to get raped in some dirty alley and then possibly killed afterwards. Every episode of _Law and Order: SVU_ she had ever seen started going through her head and it only added to her panic.

Once they were far enough in the alley the person stopped and put their mouth right by Kelly's ear. "Ssssshhhh…relax…it's me."

Kelly's eyes widened. She knew that voice. But it couldn't be…it wasn't possible…

The person turned her around and her eyes about popped out of her head when she saw that it was Ted. "Sssshhh!" He kept his hand over her mouth as she let out a scream of surprise. "It's me. Don't scream okay?" He sighed as she just stared at him in shock. "I'm going to let go of your mouth. Do you promise not to scream?"

Kelly found herself nodding. She didn't even know what the hell to think. Ted was supposed to be dead yet here he was, in the flesh. His hand felt cold and sweaty against her mouth, which made her wince and really want him to let her go.

"Good girl." He let her go and was immediately rewarded with Kelly's arms wrapping themselves around his neck. "Whoa! Kell…"

"You're supposed to be DEAD!" In the midst of giving him the hug she felt just how cold the rest of his body felt as well. It confused her but it was hard to give it more than a second though since this entire thing was confusing. "You were DEAD everyone said you were DEAD! Randy SAW you-"

"I am dead," he said with an ultra serious expression on his face. "Don't I look it?" He stared at her faltering expression before cracking a smile and shaking his head. "I'm kidding."

Kelly let out a nervous giggle but now she was eyeing Ted rather warily. The relief she had first felt was now turning into something else entirely. "You're supposed to be dead."

"I was. I was brought back-"

"But why wouldn't have anyone told us? I mean, they said did an autopsy on you and everything…" Her voice trailed off as she saw the look that came over his face. This so wasn't right. She wasn't sure at all about what was going on or how this was even possible, but everything in her was telling her to just get away from him as fast as possible.

"Kelly?" He drew her name out in a way that made her shudder. "What are you doing?"

"I'm um…I think I should tell the others you're back," she said, trying to keep her voice steady as she began taking steps back. "They should know you know?"

"Oh they don't have to know yet." Ted's tone was trying to be casual but the hardness in it was giving him away. "We could talk. Just you and me. It's been so long since we've talked I kind of miss it."

"I um…I do too." She was having an even harder time than ever keeping her voice anywhere near normal. "But um…I really think we should tell everyone else you're back." She started to try to make her escape and go back but she didn't get far. Ted grabbed her by her hair and threw her down to the ground hard. She screamed and tried to scramble backwards away from him. He quickly backhanded her hard across the face and got on top of her, pinning her wrists down above her head with one hand and using the other one to rip open his shirt. Kelly let out a short scream and tried to somehow wiggle out of his grasp but stopped when she looked at his stomach and saw something…_moving_? She could have sworn she was just seeing things but then it moved again. "Ted-"

Two flesh colored tentacles burst out of his stomach and she SCREAMED. The tentacles waved around above her for a couple of seconds before jamming themselves into her stomach. Her mouth dropped open and she tried to scream again but one didn't really come out. A choked whimper left her instead and her whole body began to twitch and spasm uncontrollably. Ted actually grinned as she let out another choked whimper and he pet her face almost lovingly. "Good girl…that's a good girl…"

…

_Na-na-na, come on_

_Na-na-na, come on_

_Na-na-na-na-na, come on_

_Na-na-na-na_

_Come on, come on, come on_

"Oh my god no," Phil groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The drunk people far outnumbered the sober ones at this point and now they were really starting to get rowdy. "Not this song. Please god not this song."

"I know," Beth agreed. She and Natalya had gotten somewhat tipsy but they weren't nearly as far gone as some of the others. "This song has been completely overplayed. I can't even like stand it even more."

"I don't think it's too bad," Nattie chimed in. "But Skank One and Skank Two trying to rape Cooper over there is ruining it for me."

_Feels so good to be bad (oh oh oh oh oh)_

_There's no way I'm turning back (oh oh oh oh oh)_

_Now the pain is my pleasure cause nothing could measure_

_(Oh oh oh oh oh)_

"Umm….guys?" Cooper took a step back from Brie and Nikki, who were trying to dance all over him like a couple of strippers on a pole. "I'm gay, remember?"

"Not for your stepmom you're not," Nikki shot back in a snippy tone. Thanks in large part to Phil, everyone backstage knew Cooper's feelings for the one and only Mindy Stratus-and how dead James wanted him for it. The once tight Lawson trio had been splintered by Cooper's feelings for the raven haired beauty and his inability to accept that things could never truly go the way he wanted to when it came to her. James wasn't just in love with her; he was completely obsessed. Anyone who came too close to her was risking finding themselves unceremoniously booted off to the afterlife.

Cooper glared at her for that comment. "Why aren't you two hanging off Alberto anymore? He looked like he was enjoying the attention."

Brie rolled her eyes. "He's over talking to _Rosa_." She spat out the name like it was absolutely disgusting even to say. "It's like he likes HER better than us."

"Well…maybe she don't have herpes."

That comment got him two slaps in the face and the twins flipped their hair over their shoulder before storming off to go hang off Dolph and Jack Swagger, who looked more than happy to see them.

_Love is great, love is fine_

_(Oh oh oh oh oh)_

_Out of box, outta line_

_(Oh oh oh oh oh)_

_The affliction of the feeling leaves me wanting more_

_(Oh oh ohh ohh ohh)_

_Cause I may be bad but I'm perfectly good at it_

_Sex in the air_

_I don't care, I love the smell of it_

_Sticks and stones may break my bones_

_But chains and whips excite me_

"We should dance," Kaitlyn suddenly said, surprising and startling AJ a bit because she had been busy playing Tetris on her phone.

"Dance?" AJ took one look at the people that were up and around dancing and instantly felt awkward. While Kaitlyn was more like her than pretty much any other girl on the roster, if she decided to get up and dance she could at least look sexy while doing it. That wasn't the case with AJ herself. Not only could she not dance but she just did not have the look to really be dancing in any kind of club. She looked like she could still be back in high school. Nobody ever let her forget that. Normally she was pretty good at shrugging it off and making jokes about it. Not like everyone was wrong. But here, where she was out of her comfort zone, she suddenly felt horribly insecure with herself. "No. No no no no dancing for me."

"Why not?" Kaitlyn asked, grabbing AJ"s hand and bouncing up and down slightly. "Come on, I don't want to dance alone."

"I'll dance with you," Bryan volunteered, interfering on AJ's behalf. He didn't really want to dance with Kaitlyn but AJ really did look embarrassed at the thought of doing it so he figured he could take one for her.

"I-"

"AJ wants to stay with ME," Connor suddenly said, sticking his tongue out at Kaitlyn and hugging AJ even though she really REALLY did not feel comfortable with him touching her. "So take THAT!" He blew a raspberry for good measure and then rested his head against AJ's chest.

_Na-na-na_

_Come on, come on, come on_

_I like it-like it_

_Come on, come on, come on_

_I like it-like it (Na-na)_

_Come on, come on, come on_

_I like it-like it_

_Come on, come on, come on_

_I like it-like it_

"Hey guys…" Jay paused to down the shot Mike had just poured for him "you remember that dance contest we had at the Christmas party a couple years ago?"

Morrison and Miz both immediately grinned. "Oh god yeah." Morrison was already cracking up as he tried to talk. "That was fucking amazing." It really had been something to see. The three of them plus the Hardys and Edge had gotten drunk off their asses on Everclear and had put on the dance competition to end all dance competitions. It finally had to be stopped when Adam and Jeff wouldn't quit giving out lap dances to prove who could do it better and Mor tried to take all his clothes off as he danced. "That was insane."

"You thinking we should do it again?" Mike asked.

"Hell yeah," Jay confirmed. He waved his hand for them to look around at the people surrounding them. "We gotta show these people how it's done."

…

Ted buttoned up his shirt and stared down at the unconscious Kelly. Her body had finally stopped twitching and he had no idea how long she was going to be out of it. Hopefully long enough for him to get her somewhere secluded without her waking up and screaming. He didn't feel like dealing with that. That god awful screech of hers killed his ears.

Once he was done buttoning up his shirt he scratched at a red pus filled sore on his neck before bending down and scooping Kelly up into his arm. One of her shoes slipped off her foot and fell to the ground but he didn't even notice. He just tightened his grip on her and took off, accidentally running into a trash can and knocking it over before disappearing into the night.

…

_I'm loose (loose)_

_And everybody knows I get off the train_

_Baby it's the truth_

_I'm like Inception_

_I play with your brain_

_So don't sleep or snooze_

_I don't play no games so don't-don't-don't get it confused no_

_Cause you will lose yeah_

"Ooooh my god," Phil said as he shook his head. Jay, Mike and Mor had put themselves in the center of the dance floor and were seemingly having some sort of dance off. Mor was going first and he had his hands behind his heads, swiveling his hips around like he was Rick Rude or something. "You're kidding me right? Please tell me they're not doing this."

"Oh they are," Beth confirmed as they watched Mor take off his shirt and actually try to belly dance. The Bellas, Alicia and Rosa all let out extremely loud catcalls and the Bellas even went over and started dancing with him. "I'm guessing this is the part where you start talking about debauchery."

"Stupidity is more like it," Phil said with a shake of his head. "Buuut I'm at the point where if they all want to make assholes out of themselves, I say let them. It's not me that has to live with the humiliation."

Natalya snorted. "Humiliation? Please. None of them have any shame whatsoever."

_Now pu-pu-pu-pu-pump it up_

_And back it up like a Tonka truck_

I_f you go hard you gotta get on the floor_

_If you're a party freak then step on the floor_

_If you're an animal then tear up the floor_

_Break a sweat on the floor_

_Yeah we work on the floor_

_Don't stop keep it moving_

_Put your drinks up _

Miz pushed Mor out of the way so he could take center stage. What followed was one of the worst looking booty pops anyone had ever seen in their lives. It literally looked like he was just spastically humping the air. "What the HELL?" Cooper yelled as he put down his drink and nearly pissed himself laughing.

"Dude, THIS is how you do it!" Kofi barged in uninvited and did a booty pop of his own. His looked good…a little TOO good."

"Yo! Seriously WHY can you do that so WELL?" Cena yelled from the table he was at with Randy.

Kofi shrugged. "What can I say? My ass has more talent than Mizzie's here ever will."

Mike scowled as everyone else laughed at him. "Oh fuck OFF. At least I'VE won the WWE title. What have you won you fake Jamaican jumping bean?"

"Oooooh shit!" Dolph said obnoxiously. "Them be fightin' words boy!"

_Pick your body up and drop it on the floor_

_Let the rhythm change your world on the floor_

_You know we're running shit tonight on the floor_

_Brazil, Morocco_

_London to Ibiza_

_Straight to LA, New York_

_Vegas to Africa_

Jay decided that he had had enough of all the attention not being on him and sought to rectify that situation. He started busting out some break dancing moves Booker T had taught him way WAY back in the day and he was actually doing pretty well for himself. Everyone whooped and hollered in appreciation and he decided to try to show off by doing a backflip. He managed to flip himself around but then promptly lost his footing and fell face first on to the floor. All but two in the room collectively winced-Cooper and Connor just threw back their heads and howled in laughter.

…

"Kelly?" Eve was starting to get really really worried. She was back at the hotel in the room she was supposed to be sharing with Kelly because she thought she would have come back there. She had searched all around the club and hadn't seen the young blonde anywhere. The only logical thing would have been for her to come back here. She was nowhere to be found though. "Shit." She sighed and pulled out her phone to give Kelly yet another call. She had already called twice with no luck-and this time was no different. "Kelly please, sweetie, pick up the phone." She started pacing back and forth out of anxiety. "Did something happen when Alicia and I weren't in the bathroom? I would have left with you if you had just stayed put and talked to me." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Call me back okay?" She hung up the phone and put it down on the bedside desk before flopping down on the bed and just laying there because she had absolutely no idea of what else to do.


	8. Chapter 8

The sound of her own stomach growling was what finally Kelly back up. She groaned lightly, her head feeling heavy as she slowly opened her eyes. She could barely see anything it was so dark. The only light in the room was from a single flickering light bulb on the other side of the room. She shivered and hugged herself tightly. She had her clothes on thankfully but considering that she wasn't exactly dressed for warmth in the first place, they didn't do her a whole lot of good. The cold didn't bother her nearly as much as the hunger though. There was a rumbling in her stomach unlike anything she had really felt before. All she could think about was eating. She tried to push it to the back of her mind so she could focus on figuring out where she was. She couldn't though. The hunger was too much. She tried to move so she could attempt to find something, anything to eat and discovered she was chained to the wall. Her eyes widened and she wrapped her hands around the chain, trying to pull it out of the wall it was attached to. It didn't so much as budge. She whimpered and tried again. It still didn't budge. "Help!" she screamed, banging the chain against the wall as hard as she could. "Help please HELP!"

The door at the top of the staircase opened and the light from upstairs streamed into the room, right in her face. She squeaked and turned away from the light, blinking several times to try to adjust to it and get the little dots that she was now seeing to disappear. By the time she managed that, she turned back to see that Ted was kneeling down in front of her with a plastic grocery bag in his hand. "Hey there Kel. How you doin?" The way he asked that was as emotionless as it could get. He clearly didn't care how she was doing and why he was even bother faking it was beyond her.

"P-p-please," she whimpered, trying to scoot away from him even though she really didn't have anywhere to go. "Ted p-p-please let me go." Why hadn't she run away the moment she saw him? He had been confirmed dead yet she had stuck around thinking some kind of miracle had happened and he was back. So stupid of her.

He shook his head and gently brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. She flinched at his touch but he either didn't notice or didn't care. "I can't. You have to stay with me."

"Why?" The question was drowned out by a very loud growl from her stomach and he shook his head and reached into his bag.

"You need to eat. This is all I could get my hands on at the moment. Once we move and get closer to the others I'll get you something better." He pulled out a huge chunk of raw hamburger meat and held it out to her. "Come on. Eat up."

Kelly's eyes widened as she stared at the meat. She knew what she should do. She should be absolutely disgusted. She should reject the mere thought of eating it and keep begging to leave. But something inside her wouldn't let her. The sight of the meat alone made her mouth water. It shouldn't have but it did. Everything in her was rejecting what she should be thinking and screaming for her to eat. She wanted it. She needed it. There were little voices in her brain telling her to take it. Hundreds of them. Maybe even more. They wanted her to take it. Needed her to do it. Needed her to eat. Feed them. They were the ones that were starving. Needed meat. Needed flesh. Couldn't have flesh so she had to take the meat.

"That's it," Ted cooed as Kelly took the meant from his hand and began devouring it. "Thaaat's it." He reached back into the bag and pulled out more for her, which she happily consumed. "That's a good girl. Thaaat's a good girl…"

…

"Sooo are you SURE Kelly is missing?" Vince asked Eve. It was the next afternoon and when Kelly hadn't shown up to the arena for the house show that was supposed to take place in a few hours Eve had gone straight to Hunter, who had taken her to Vince and Stephanie who had both come to the show. Normally they didn't bother with house shows but it was in Connecticut so they were in the area anyway.

Eve nodded. "She took off last night and I couldn't find her anywhere. And she's not here. We've all been looking and nobody's seen her. Security says she hasn't even arrived yet and I called the hotel and they said she never checked out of her room."

"Oh fuck," Stephanie muttered. She pinched the bridge of her nose while Hunter sighed heavily. "First Ted and not Kelly-"

"There's NO proof that these incidents are connected," Vince snapped suddenly.

Stephanie blinked, taken aback by that response even though she shouldn't have been. He had been on edge since Ted's death and nothing was making it better because they hadn't heard anything about the autopsy report yet. Nobody even knew when the funeral was supposed to be. Nobody had been able to get a hold of his family and find out yet. "I didn't say that," she said, trying to keep her voice calm so she wouldn't come off as attacking him back. It was hard though. Her instincts wanted her to get defensive. "But still, this isn't good. One employee dies and another goes missing-"

"We don't know if she's really missing."

Eve, Hunter and Stephanie all stared at him incredulously. "Nobody's seen or heard from her last night," Hunter said slowly. "And I know I don't know her that well but that's not really like her."

"He's right," Eve chimed in. "Not at all."

"Dad this isn't like Jeff who would go missing and turn up to be just flaking out on us." Stephanie wasn't about to let up either. "This is Kelly. She's missing and we HAVE to take this seriously. What if something happened to her and it gets out you didn't want to do anything about it right away?"

"I didn't SAY that," Vince said sharply. "What I was trying to say was, she's not a child. Generally speaking, they won't let anyone file a missing persons report or start looking into it until a full twenty four hours has gone by."

"Well we HAVE to do something," Stephanie said impatiently. "We can't just-" Vince's phone ringing cut her off and he answered it while holding up a hand at her.

"Hello? Dusty? Wh-" He suddenly froze, his jaw dropping and his eyes growing wide. "WHAT?" He grabbed Hunter by his shirt and pulled him out of the room, leaving Stephanie and Eve alone and confused together in the room.

"What was that all about?" Eve asked hesitantly. She didn't exactly feel comfortable being caught up in this McMahon situation. It wasn't like the old days where they were always around and the intimidation factor wore off for the most part. Shane and Linda were gone from the company, Stephanie was rarely backstage, leaving Hunter as the one everyone really dealt with.

Stephanie shook her head. "I have no idea." She ran a hand through her long brown hair and took a step towards the door. She didn't like the feeling she had in her gut right now. The look that had come over her father's face spelled nothing good at all.

After a few minutes of awkward silence the door opened and Hunter came back in, a dumbfounded look written across his face. "What?" Stephanie immediately asked. "What is it?"

Hunter could only shake his head. "I don't think you'll believe me even if I tell you."

"Tell me anyway," Stephanie said impatiently. "Believe me, I've heard strange shit before there's nothing-"

"Ted's family is dead and his body went missing from the morgue."

"…WHAT?"


	9. Chapter 9

Ted was on the move. He stuck to the shadows, scratching absently at his skin, which was becoming blotchy and covered in sores. He hadn't even noticed though. Not like he had been looking in any mirrors lately. The hunger was consuming him. Both his own and Kelly. Hers was worse than his and she was the reason he was out here now. He had been giving her raw steaks and hamburger meat but that wasn't doing much for her anymore. She needed something fresher, which was why he was there. He needed to get her food and these were his most familiar stomping grounds. He could have gone anywhere really for this; Kelly wasn't going to be picky at this point. But something drew him there and he was just going with it. No need to question why or anything. Instinct was instinct at this point and he was following it.

He watched the arena parking lot carefully, not even daring to blink. He needed to get someone that was coming in alone. Several people had arrived already but they had come in pairs or groups so he hadn't been able to make a move. He needed one stray to sneak up on and take. Not all of them would be as dumb and easy as Kelly had been. No way he could try anything with anyone else around. Not now anyway. Soon. Very soon.

His eyes caught sight of a car pulling up just a few feet away from him. He stepped further back into the shadows to ensure he wasn't seen. Was it someone alone? Fuck how he needed it to be….yes. Jinder Mahal. Thank Christ. Jinder had like no friends backstage. Nothing about him rubbed anyone the right way. Nobody would miss him for a single second. Glancing around first to make sure the coast was clear, Ted emerged from the shadows and crept up on Jinder as he walked past. Jinder almost stopped when he heard something behind him but by then it was too late. Ted wrapped an arm around his neck and began to squeeze tightly, taking him down with a sleeper hold and dragging him into the shadows. Jinder kicked his feet and tried to get loose but Ted had none of it. He kept up the pressure until he felt Jinder's body go limp and then let go, double checking to make sure he hadn't gone too far and accidentally strangled him to death. When that wasn't the case, he threw Jinder over his shoulder and took off before another car could pull up.

…

Unbeknownst to Ted, he had in fact been watched the entire time. Connor had managed to escape Cooper and had been going outside to play even though he wasn't supposed to. He had been about to go start running around when he had spotted Ted attacking the cranky foreign guy that was always scowling and yelling on TV. At first he thought it was supposed to be part of the show but then he realized there were no cameras…and Ted was supposed to be dead. What in the world was he doing walking around? He certainly didn't look very alive….Connor's eyes widened as the realization hit him. Cooper told him it couldn't ever be but that was clearly a big fat lie. Not surprising. Cooper was full of lies. This was just another one and Connor was going to make sure he damn well knew it.

…

"Cody and Dusty found the bodies?"

John Cena's question snapped Randy out of his thoughts and he nodded. "Nobody was getting any answer from them so Cody and Dusty went there themselves. They found them and then when the cops came they checked the answering machine and that was how they found out about Ted's body.

"Shit." John shook his head. "How a hell does a thing like this happen?"

Randy shrugged. He had no idea. All he knew was that this was a mess and he had this gut feeling it was going to get even worse before it was all over.

…

"So what the fuck happened to your guys' women division?" Cooper asked Beth and Natalya as they got ready for their match. Technically speaking, he wasn't supposed to be in the women's locker room and really should be finding Connor because he had run off and was doing god knows what. But he had no urge to actually get up and do that so he was just sitting there, watching the girls get ready. "I mean, I don't really watch that much anymore but every time I see you guys on TV you only get what? Two minutes at the most to wrestle?"

Natalya shook her head unhappily. "Don't remind us. We're all too well of our limitations these days. At least Beth here has been able to have great showings at the past few pay per views. I'm the one that's getting rolled up in about a minute even when I dominate the other fifty seven seconds."

Cooper shook his head. It amazed him how little respect the girls got these days. He wasn't a fan of wrestling really but it was just retarded to him to have that many girls on the roster and waste them all so badly. "You guys should like…rise up and rebel or something. Demand more time and shit."

"What good will it do?" Beth asked. "Most likely we'll all be fired and they'll just bring up all the FCW girls. Rebelling won't do any good when they think we're expenda-"

"Cooper! Cooper Cooper Cooper Cooper!"

Cooper groaned as he, Beth and Natalya turned back towards the door. Connor came running in through it just seconds later, his eyes wide and his entire body just ready to bounce off the walls. "Guess what guess what guess what?"

"Bubble butt," Cooper guessed the usual answer when Connor asked that question.

"Nooooooo." Connor bounced up and down eagerly, giggling loudly as he did so. "I saw a ZOMBIE! Ted's a ZOMBIE now!"

That didn't get the reaction he was looking for. Beth just stared at him incredulously while Natalya and Cooper sighed in exasperation. "It's TRUE! I saw him I did!"

"Yeah I'm sure," Cooper muttered sarcastically.

"I did!" Connor insisted. "I did I did I did! I saw him outside. He took the foreign guy away to EAT him!"

"Connor sweetie, you think you see a lot of things," Natalya said gently. "And it's not always real. Your imagination-"

"It was NOT my imagination!" Connor yelled, balling up his fists and stamping his foot angrily. "I saw Ted I did! He was a zombie-"

"Connor that's enough," Cooper said sharply. "There's no such things as zombies. Ted's dead-JUST dead. He's not here eating people so just shut up."

"Yes he-"

"No he's not. Now stop it."

"But-"

"This conversation is over."

"MEAN!"

…

Kelly was so hungry. Sooo hungry. She could hardly stand it. The constant gnawing in her stomach was driving her insane. All she had been doing was eating the raw meat Ted had left her when he was gone. It wasn't enough though. She needed more. So much more.

"Honey, I'm hooooome." Ted's voice was raspier now. He didn't even sound like himself anymore. Not that really mattered. What mattered was that he was carrying the now bound and gagged Jinder Mahal over his shoulder. "Look what I brought." He dumped Jinder down unceremoniously on the floor. "Dinner."

Kelly barely even heard him. She just lunged forward, sinking her teeth into Jinder's flesh and began ripping away at it. Jinder let out a muffled scream but she didn't care. She just kept ripping away, eagerly eating the flesh and meat that filled her mouth and lapping his blood up like dog to wash it all down.


End file.
